Huntsville burglaries continue to decline in January

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- After a big spike in the fall, burglaries in Huntsville have dropped for the second straight month.

After dealing with 261 burglaries (220 residential, 41 commercial) in November, the Huntsville Police Department saw burglaries drop to 225 (187 residential and 38 commercial) in December and 172 (141 residential and 31 commercial) through January. The decrease from November to December was 13.8 percent and from December to January, 24 percent.

The number of burglaries in January also decreased from a year ago -- 221 in January of 2011 (178 residential and 43 commercial) vs. 172 this year. There were also 225 burglaries (187 residential and 38 commercial) in December 2011 versus 251 (50 residential and 201 commercial) in December of 2010.

"We appreciate our citizens being vigilant and conscientious in securing their property," Huntsville police chief Mark Hudson said. "These actions directly contributed to the reduction in burglaries. We appreciate our local businesses for being more attentive and reporting any suspicious activity they observe."

Hudson also attributes the drop to the Police Department's Burglary Task Force and Burglary Prevention Awareness campaign started in November.

Burglaries to homes and businesses were up 24 percent from September through November from the same period in 2010. Most happened in the middle of the day, between 10 a.m. and noon, while people were at work. From Oct. 1 until Nov. 17, the north precinct reported the most burglaries -- 53 percent -- followed by the west precinct with 29 percent and south precinct with 18 percent.

Along with the Burglary Task Force, the Burglary Prevention Awareness program included training utility workers to watch out for suspicious activity and educating the public on prevention, which included the use of digital signs on University Drive.

Huntsville police also worked with Madison County Magistrate Lee Leggett to raise the bonds to the maximum amount because they were seeing many of the same offenders over and over. Suspects who had faced a $10,000 bond to get out for first-degree burglary now face a $60,000 bond. (A cash bond generally requires the defendant to pay 10 percent of the bond's value to get out of jail.)

Huntsville police have available for download a burglary prevention manual at hsvpolice.com/burglaryprevention.htm.